Successful first season for the Bolts

NORWICH – The Greater Chenango Track and Field Club, named The Bolts, is the first USA Track and Field team to grace the 607 area code with it's presence. And now through the hard work of Norwich's Shannon Gawronski and her staff of committed assistant coaches, they can successfully reflect on a very successful first season completed.

“We finished the season at the Empire State Liberty Tour, the culmination of all the Liberty games,” said Gawronski of the Liberty Tour Track and Field meets they attended, including the last one at Mohanasen high school. “We went to three, then did USA Track and Field as well. As a team we took third place overall, we didn’t have the depth with the girls, but the boys swept it, they won outright. This is how we ended the season, ended up third overall while only competing in three of their meets. This really put us on the radar.”

Gawronski explained that the involvement throughout the summer season was superb, however, there was a never a time restraint on joining the team, which helped allow a free flow of new faces to step in and compete when they were available to.

The culmination of the season was in fact on July 16, when Gawronski and her assistant coaches took their team to the Liberty Games, earning the third place finish in the Adirondack league overall. However, this was just the storybook ending to top off the successful season which saw eight different athletes qualify for the larger regional meet. This regional meet happened to fall on the weekend of Gus Macker (July 9-10), so many of the eight, could not travel to Albany State University to compete. Yet, the sheer chance to go, and the ability to qualify is what Gawronski highlighted as the true importance of what The Bolts can offer aspiring athletes.